Venom

Gary Ross is writing “Venom,” Columbia’s “Spider-Man” spinoff based on one of the villains from “Spider-Man 3,” as a potential directing vehicle. Ross is already writing “Spider-Man 4” for the studio. In the comics, Venom is a gooey alien parasite that bonds with Peter Parker and later his newsroom rival, among other people, becoming one of more popular villains in "Spider-Man’s" rogue gallery. Topher Grace portrayed the character in the 2007 movie, which ended with both the human and the alien symbiote apparently destroyed in an explosion. The studio had no comment on Grace’s involvement nor on Ross writing the project. Avi Arad and Marvel are producing the movie. Ross, repped by CAA, hasn’t directed a movie since 2003’s “Seabiscuit.”

The relationship between Columbia Pictures and Gary Ross that began with his rewrite on “Spider-Man 4” is taking a “Venom”-ous turn. I am hearing that the studio is in talks with Ross to helm the Spidey-spinoff “Venom,” and rewrite the script. Ross will begin writing the script as soon as he completes the “Spider-Man” film. While Venom showed up in the last Spidey installment, the intention is to start from scratch. Topher Grace played him in the last picture but the role will likely be recast. Developing…

Re: Venom

Sony is making good on its promise to expand the Spider-Man universe in a big way, hiring superstar writers Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci, Jeff Pinkner, Ed Solomon and Drew Goddard to work on a large-scale story that will encompass several films.

The writers will work with Spider-Man producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach and The Amazing Spider-Man director Marc Webb to form what Sony is calling a “franchise brain to expand the universe for the brand and to develop a continuous tone and thread throughout the films,” according to Sony’s announcement, which was leaked Thursday night through the website ElectoArrives.com.

Kurtzman and Orci are already working on a third installment of Amazing Spider-Man. Sony has also announced a release date for a fourth Amazing Spider-Man movie for May 4, 2018.

But Kurtzman, Orci and Solomon will write Venom, centered on the black costumed villain that already made his big screen debut in the third Spider-Man movie of the Sam Raimi trillogy, that Kurtzman will direct.

Goddard, meanwhile, will write, with an eye to direct, The Sinister Six, which will focus on Spider-Man’s villains.

“The Spider-Man film franchise is one of our studio’s greatest assets,” said Columbia Pictures president Doug Belgrad. “We are thrilled with the creative team we have assembled to delve more deeply into the world that Marc, Avi and Matt have begun to explore in The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. We believe that Marc, Alex, and Drew have the uniquely exciting visions for how to expand the Spider-Man universe in each of these upcoming films.”

Kurtzman, Orci and Pinkner are already experienced in world and franchise building, with their work on the Star Trek and Transformers movies as well as shows such as Fringe.

Goddard, who worked with Kurtzman, Orci and Pinkner on TV’s Alias, was one of the saviors of World War Z after that movie ran into third act trouble and is now into the Marvel fold with Daredevil, the Netflix series whose pilot he is writing and directing.

Solomon, meanwhile, is best know for his writing Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventures and Men In Black. He was also a writer on this summer’s surprise hit, Now You See Me.

The building of a movie universe seems to be the major trend for studios right now and stems directly from Marvel Studios' success with The Avengers and creating its own shared cinematic universe in which separate movies are connected by events and characters. It mimics the idea that came from the creation of the Marvel Universe in the 1960s comics.

But despite much effort, not all Marvel characters are under its (or parent company Disney's) umbrella, as several key properties remain in the hands of studios who are now taking that concept and running with it as they seek to find new ways to keep their franchises fresh.

Fox recently re-upped with writer-producer Simon Kinberg, who told THR that he was going to be an architect of the studio's expanding X-Men universe. (Fox is also rebooting the Fantastic Four franchise, but it's not clear if those two franchises will ever cross-over)

Even Warner Bros. and DC Entertainment are following the Marvel method and working there way towards a movie featuring DC's superhero team, the Justice League. The Man of Steel sequel has already cast its Batman and Wonder Woman.

Sony's announcement now puts it into the universe-creating game, along with the others.

Re: Venom

Looks like Venom won't be an 'alien symbiotic' this time around. Rather, it's going to be one of the classified 'projects' under Oscorp Industries, just like what they did with Spidey's power origin in Amazing Spider-man movie.
In one of the movie stills in Amazing Spider-man 2, the 'Venom Project' can be seen listed among the long list of projects being worked on by Oscorp Industries.
Or maybe it will be alien after all, but Oscorp discovers it first definitely. Not Peter Parker.

Re: Venom

Actually it's referred to as the Venom Storage. And there's also mention of 2 other characters or potential characters.

Sounds like they're borrowing from the Ultimate comics again. Not sure how I feel about that.

Honestly, in my ideal Venom film, we wouldn't even know where the symbiote came from, but alas, I'm not making the film am I? I doubt I'd even be allowed to make the kind of Venom film I'd like to see even if I WAS in charge. Think Taxi Driver + The Exorcist + The Thing.

Re: Venom Carnage

Lynton talked about an expansion of the Spider-Man universe in 2013, saying that they were going to create a number of spinoffs including Sinister Six and one revolving around the Venom character which first appeared in Spider-Man 3 and was portrayed by Topher Grace. The Venom movie — which we hear is entitled Venom Carnage — is still said to be in development with old pros Alex Kurtzman and Ed Solomon scripting. The Venom pic, which Kurtzman will direct, may also now come out in 2017.

Re: Venom 2018

Maybe you've noticed that James Cameron as not begun filming Avatar 2, and you've found yourself wondering how the hell he intends to meet that December, 2018 release date. Maybe you've been thinking that seems unlikely.

"Well, 2018 is not happening,” he told The Star ... “We haven’t announced a firm release date. What people have to understand is that this is a cadence of releases. So we’re not making Avatar 2. We’re making Avatar 2, 3, 4 and 5. It’s an epic undertaking. It’s not unlike building the Three Gorges dam. (Laughs) So I know where I’m going to be for the next eight years of my life. It’s not an unreasonable time frame if you think about it. It took us four-and-a-half years to make one movie and now we’re making four. We’re full tilt boogie right now. This is my day job and pretty soon we’ll be 24-7. We’re pretty well designed on all our creatures and sets. It’s pretty exciting stuff. I wish I could share with the world. But we have to preserve a certain amount of showmanship and we’re going to draw that curtain when the time is right.”

Looks like you’re going to have to wait a little longer to see Jason Momoa in his standalone Aquaman movie.

Warner Bros. announced Thursday that they’ve postponed the release date of the James Wan-directed feature two months from Oct. 5, 2018 to Dec. 21, 2018.

Of course, this won’t be the first time fans see Momoa as the D.C. Comics hero. He made a brief appearance in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and will appear again in this fall’s Justice League, set for release on Nov. 17.

A Christmas release for Aquaman does indicate the studio’s confidence in the film, a good sign considering other D.C. releases seem to be in some kind of tumult, including shifting directors on upcoming Flash and Batman projects.

Now the movie, which costars Nicole Kidman, Amber Heard, and Patrick Wilson, will go up against Sony’s animated Spider-Man flick.

Aquaman was previously competing against Sony’s other big bet: the next chapter in the Lisbeth Salander story, The Girl in the Spider’s Web, which will be directed by Fede Alvarez (Don’t Breathe), but has yet to cast its new protagonist.

Venom is heading to the big screen. Spider-Man’s nemesis, sharp of fang, flexible of morals, will get his own adventure, Sony said on Thursday. The spin-off film will swing into theaters on Oct. 5, 2018. Venom is a favorite of comic fans; the alien has long terrorized the web-slinging hero.

To make room, Sony will move “The Girl in the Spider’s Web,” Fede Alvarez’s “Dragon Tattoo” reboot from Oct. 5 to Oct. 19. It will face off against “Jungle Book: Origins,” Warner Bros.’ take on the Rudyard Kipling stories, and an untitled film from Blumhouse, the low-budget horror purveyor behind “The Purge” and “Get Out.”

The release shuffle took place hours after Warner Bros. moved “Aquaman” from its Oct. 5 to Dec. 21, 2018. The studio was filling a holiday season hole left by “Avatar 2’s” delays.

David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” made $232.6 million globally, but was a financial disappointment given its $90 million budget and millions more spent on advertising. Alvarez, who scored with last year’s “Don’t Breathe,” is re-casting the lead roles of super sleuth Lisbeth Salander and crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist, previously played by Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig.

The studio is also sprucing up its Spider-Man films. “Spider-Man: Homecoming” will debut this summer, with Tom Holland taking over the web-spinner role from Andrew Garfield. The idea is to focus on a more youthful Spidey as he tries to balance saving the world with being a high-schooler. Sony has long harbored ambitions to better exploit the universe of Spider-Man characters that it licenses from Marvel Comics. At one point, the studio wanted to make a standalone Sinister Six film, focused on assorted Spider-Man villains, but that plan was shelved after “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” failed to be a global blockbuster, sending Sony back to the drawing board.

Scott Rosenberg (“Jumanji”) and Jeff Pinkner (“The Dark Tower”) will write the script for the Venom film, with Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach producing the picture.

Re: Venom 2018

From what I’ve gathered they’re basically changing his origin story – like the costume didn’t come from outer space, but from some kind of science experiment.
And you know what? That’s a bad idea.

If you ask me, this is the perfect moment to introduce the Venom costume as something that came from outer space – because Sony’s Spider-man is now officially tied to the Marvel Cinematic Universe – and everyone knows Marvel has this thing going on with the Guardians of the Galaxy and Infinity Wars – all outer space stuffs, right?
I don’t know how their shared licensing with Marvel works – if it’s exclusive to Spider-man (the character) or if it includes the extended characters (like Venom) as well. But even if it doesn’t include Venom, they could still “unofficially” include some sort of Easter egg of the Venom costume in one of the outer space-based Marvel movies. And then from there the fans could just sort of connect the dots to the Venom movie.

They would have capitalized on the whole shared universe thing and stayed true to the comics at the same time.

Re: Venom

A few days ago, a pretty wild fan theory about the upcoming sci-fi thriller Life hit Reddit. Given that the story of the film revolves around astronauts coming into contact with the first extraterrestrial life in space, this Reddit theory asked whether Life was actually a secret Venom origin story. At first I laughed about it. After all, there is no way Sony could make it to almost the opening day of a movie without people knowing what it actually was, and the project was put together by Skydance before Sony even came onboard and Skydance certainly doesn’t own the rights to the Marvel Comics character. But then I remembered only a few weeks ago I sat down to watch M. Night Shyamalan’s Split and was blown away by that film’s ending, which revealed Split to be a secret sequel to another film entirely. Moreover, when I interviewed Life screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick a few years ago, they told me about their version of the Venom script Sony had been developing after Spider-Man 3.

Immediately I emailed Sony for comment. Almost instantly they emailed me back debunking the theory. While personal publicists occasionally won’t tell you the truth about their client, I’ve never had a studio deny something and then find out later it’s true. It’s just not how they operate. So, like I said, when the studio debunked the fan theory outright I was done with it.

But then, almost a day after I asked Sony about that rumor, the studio announces an October 5, 2018 release date for a Venom movie. This was surprising to say the least.

After spending the day at the Life junket in Austin, Texas and talking with all the key people involved, I can tell you with certainty what the studio told me is still true: it’s just a wild fan theory.

But when I sat down with Life director Daniel Espinosa, I still wanted to know what he thought about this crazy theory. Check out what he had to say in the player above. He also talked about his love of comic books, Marvel, and how when he was growing up, being into comics meant something completely different than it is nowadays.

Tom Hardy has shrugged off his Bane costume for an alien symbiote if the latest reports regarding Sony’s planned Venom film are to be believed. You’ll remember that Sony is eager to kick off their own shared cinematic universe based on their rights to Spider-Man and 900 some odd characters, dubbed Sony’s Marvel Universe. We now have an idea of what the intended R-rated kick-off to this universe will look like thanks to the news that not only will Hardy star in the title role as Eddie Brock, but that Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland, Gangster Squad) will direct.

The news broke via press release with multiple trades reporting that the Oscar-nominated Hardy and Fleischer are in final negotiations for Venom. This comes as good news considering that Sony has set the picture for an October 5, 2018 release date. And though Sony is working hand-in-hand with Marvel Studios to feature the more familiar wall-crawler in Spider-Man: Homecoming this July 7th, Venom is going to launch the studio’s own ‘verse’ that won’t be connected to the MCU in any way. Production is expected to start this fall.

Hardy, who will next be seen in Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk, will undoubtedly fully inhabit the role of Eddie Brock. He’s been known to dive deep into such characters as the psychotic Charles Bronson, the charming Eames from Inception, the damaged veteran/fighter Tommy Conlon in Warrior, and the tough-as-nails Forrest Bondurant in Lawless … and yes, the mumbling terrorist Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. Now Hardy makes the shift to the Marvel side of things and will likely enjoy a lot of CG-heavy action on screen as Venom, the counterpart to the relatively mild-mannered Eddie Brock. Plot details remain quiet, however, so it’ll be a while before we figure out how this movie is shaping up, and just what Fleischer will bring to the table.

As for the post-Venom pictures in the Sony Marvel Universe, screenwriter Chris Yost (Thor: Ragnarok) will write the script for a pitch on Spider-Man characters Black Cat and Silver Sable, building on a previous version of the script from Lisa Joy (Westworld); Matt Tolmach and Amy Pascal will produce the film previously known as the “secret female spin-off project.”

Scott Rosenberg (Jumanji) and Jeff Pinkner (The Dark Tower) are writing the script for Venom, with Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, and Amy Pascal as producers. Palak Patel and Eric Fineman will oversee the production for Columbia Pictures.

Re: Venom

Sony has long dreamed of having a cinematic universe of Marvel characters.

In 2014, the studio planned to have “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” launch a series of spinoff films focused on super-villains such as the Green Goblin, Venom and other members of the Sinister Six. However, those plans were put on ice when the sequel disappointed at the box office.

With the success of “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” a reboot of the series that sends Tom Holland as the wall-crawler back to high school, Sony is revisiting its ambitions to create a Spidey-verse. The new film grossed nearly $260 million worldwide in its opening weekend. Sony has already announced a “Venom” stand-alone film, with Tom Hardy playing the super-villain, and is in preproduction on “Silver & Black,” which will pair Black Cat, a jewel thief, with Silver Sable, a mercenary.

As the studio looks beyond “Homecoming,” Columbia Pictures president Sanford Panitch has been immersing himself in the “Spider-Man” comic books and boning up on the backstories of Peter Parker’s various costumed adversaries. The studio has licensed the “Spider-Man” comics from Marvel since the early aughts — it’s a pact that includes rights to roughly 900 characters. “With the Sony universe of Marvel characters, our mission is only to do what’s the absolute best for each individual property,” says Panitch. “I just want to honor the original DNA.”

Ever since Marvel showed the potential of interconnected cinematic universes by having Iron Man, Hulk and other characters team up for Avengers missions before spinning off on individual adventures, other studios have scrambled to come up with their own in-house iterations. Results are mixed. DC Comics’ “Justice League” movies have racked up impressive grosses, but others, such as Universal’s Dark Universe franchise of monster stories, have gotten mashed.

Marvel has empowered Kevin Feige to oversee its film output, while Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy calls the shots on the “Star Wars” movies. Sony is going in a different direction. The studio isn’t tasking any single exec or producer with building the web of “Spider-Man” characters. Instead, it wants each picture to have a distinct style. That means the characters might be featured in R-rated outings or in lower-budgeted offerings. Sony also isn’t interested in producing just conventional comic-book movies. It sees “Venom” as a spin on a horror film, for instance, while director Gina Prince-Bythewood likens “Silver & Black” to buddy films such as “Thelma & Louise” and “Midnight Run.”

“I wanted to tell the story of two damaged women who are at war with each other but need each other to survive,” says Prince-Bythewood. She’s been looking at the origins of each character in order to explain how Silver Sable became a killer for hire and why Black Cat is drawn to crime. In both cases, she found that the characters were haunted by the deaths of their parents. “Silver & Black” sounds darker than “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” which played like a John Hughes comedy with more spandex. That’s precisely the point, says Panitch.

“Superhero movies have now transcended [the point] where they’re no longer superhero movies per se; they are essentially genre movies,” he says. “It’s not so much that characters have a cape and fly. In “Silver & Black,” these two women are modern and cool. … They may wear costumes, but [they’re] very real and very grounded.”

For “Venom,” Sony has tapped director Ruben Fleischer (“Zombieland”) to bring the menacing arachnoid to the masses. In the comic books and the film Venom is hatched after reporter Eddie Brock (Hardy) bonds with an alien symbiote — a union that gives him deadly powers. “I’ve always been drawn to the more antihero superheroes,” Fleischer says. “There’s a dark element to [Venom] and a wit that has always appealed to me.”

Fleischer says the film will deal with Venom’s origins and with the Jekyll and Hyde relationship Brock has with the alien symbiote. “They become almost a third being, which is what Venom is,” Fleischer says. “There’s a famous quote: ‘You’re Eddie Brock. I’m the symbiote. Together we are Venom.’”

Panitch says “Venom” will draw on the work of John Carpenter or David Cronenberg while promising “more pop and fun.”

“Spider-Man: Homecoming” marked an unprecedented collaboration between Sony and Marvel. For the first time, Marvel didn’t just collect a licensing fee; it produced the picture. The deal enabled Sony to have appearances by the likes of Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man. In return, Spider-Man was featured in “Captain America: Civil War” and the upcoming “Avengers: Infinity War.” Marvel won’t be involved in “Venom” or “Silver & Black,” and Sony is circumspect about whether or not Spider-Man will make an appearance. “If we get lucky enough to make more than one [Venom film] and continue the franchise, there are lots of opportunities,” Panitch says.

Sony is plunging ahead with films featuring Silver Sable, Black Cat and Venom, and promises to make more announcements in the coming months. Fans would love to see Kraven the Hunter, the maniacal big-game hunter who treats Spidey as prey, make it to the big screen. Panitch shares their enthusiasm even as he deflects questions about a stand-alone Kraven adventure.

“He’s an awesome character,” Panitch says. “Let’s just leave it at that.”

Re: Venom

The brand new Venom movie Twitter account posted their first photo with the caption, “Day 1.” Tom Hardy, who stars as the titular supervillain, can be seen clearly in the pic. Considering it’s the first official photo from the production, not much can be gathered from the photo besides the fact that we now have official proof that Hardy is involved. Other than that, not much is happening in the photo. Even so, the pic gathered hype from fans as they left comments of excitement on the post. This may be the first of many teaser pics we see from on Venom Twitter account.

The character of Venom, who is also known as Eddie Brock, was last portrayed on the big screen by Topher Grace in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 in 2007.

Riz Ahmed, Michelle Williams, and Reid Scott are also attached to star in the comic book spin-off. Ruben Fleischer directs the a script from Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner. Matt Tolmach and Avi Arad will produce. The film is set to open October 5, 2018.